The news that Bill Hyers has left Charlie Crist's campaign has sent ...well, not exactly shockwaves through Florida's political community, but at least some minor reverberations.
Hyers was branded one of the hot Democratic consultants in the country after his success in ushering in Bill DeBlasio's overwhelming victory over Joe Lhota in New York City's mayoral election last month. He told New YorkMagazine yesterday that he never really had fully engaged in his role with Crist however, saying, "I never started, and ended up just deciding to stay in NYC. Great town."
Of course it is, Bill. But you knew that before you decided to work for Charlie. No?
Crist is brushing off the slight, saying it's no biggie. And perhaps he's right. But it has to unnerve some Democrats in the state who are putting all of their chips on the former Republican running in his first race in his new party. Although he once again downplayed rumors to the contrary yesterday, Bill Nelson's slip of the tongue recently that he might run if Crist "got into trouble" suddenly might seem a bit more appealing to some now concerned D's.
Speaking of Nelson, the 71-year-old Democrat was in high dungeon yesterday, railing against Secretary of State Ken Dentzer's directive to the 67 Supervisors of Election across the state that they needed to begin changing their policies on how they collect absentee ballots (now sometimes referred to as 'vote by mail') ballots). Dentzer may have taken note, since he essentially is now backing off that directive.
And if you didn't know it was a new day at City Hall in St. Petersburg, you better now. Mayor-Elect Rick Kriseman's second new hire is like his first - a black female with strong roots in the community. That would be his choice for his director of Urban Affairs, Nikki Gaskin-Capehart.
And President Obama is scheduled to call for a raise in the minimum wage today, to over $10 an hour. Meanwhile a new study released yesterday shows that 2/3rds of the new jobs in Florida pay below a living wage, which organizers say is roughly around $36,000 annually for a single person.